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On the 10th we headed up north to Lawrence Farms to do some pumpkin picking upping and meet up with Tammy, Mark and Zack. It was a real nice farm with apple picking and lots of other veggies to pick. They even had a play village, fresh apple cider donuts and some goats, sheep and peacock. A pumpkin was picked and a few apples too. I didn’t pay attention to the pumpkin picking thinking that it was just going to rot like last year’s pumpkin. Now I wish I did as Geneva and Phoenix are coming over to help carve the pumpkin! Oh well. I wish we could have stayed longer at the farm but it was a bit windy and we didn’t dress appropriately (mind you, we did know it was going to be colder and brought sweaters but that wasn’t enough!). Afterwards we headed over to Tammy’s house for some delicious chili and Sienna played next to a bunch of other kids. It was a nice day.

Yves’ got 2 real cute videos on his post!

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A couple of weeks ago was the September mixer. Since I really enjoyed Common Ground at the August mixer, I decided to go back there but this time for Wednesday night trivia! I was able to rally Peter to meet me for dinner beforehand (he doesn’t normally come to the mixers).

The plantains

The cheesy balls

The Arepas

Close up of our favorite

Pete getting ready to chomp!

We went to Caracas Arepa Bar in the East Village. YUM YUM YUM! We got 2 appetizers and a sort of sampler arepa plate to share. We got yoyos (fried sweet plantain balls stuffed with white cheese) and Tostones Mochimeros (Fried Green Plantains topped with Mojito Mayo, a squeeze of lemon and white cheese) for the apps. And we opted for the La Popular combination platter: La de Pabellón (shredded beef, black beans, white salty cheese and sweet plantains), La Reina Pepiada (chunky chicken and avocado mix salad) and La Mulata (grilled white cheese with jalapeños, sautéed red peppers, fried sweet plantains and black beans). The La Mulata was both of our favorite and it was fun to see Pete shout out a Whoo! when he got to the jalapeños. The Reina Pepiada was our 2nd favorite and the de Pabellón was our least favorite (a bit too sweet). We were too stuffed to get any of their desserts and tried to think of somewhere for some ice cream when we ran into Alison and Josh going to the mixer. We decided to just start drinking and head to the bar.

Josh, Nuno and Ali thinking up answers

Pete stayed for a drink and left before trivia. Guess what? We won trivia night!! Wooohooo!! Now, I can’t take any credit whatsoever for the win. I might have known about 5 answers to the 60 questions asked. Unfortunately our team was named Monkey Karate Ninjas (I think Josh picked this one and I was already feeling the beer and did not argue! HA!) and there were some really entertaining team names. I think most credit goes to Jonathan. We won a $50 gift certificate to Common Ground and will probably use it for the November mixer. The mix I made I had Sienna in mind as I called it We Can Count! Below is the tracklist.

Starts With One    Shiny Toy Guns
Two Times    The Blakes
3 Strange Days    School of Fish
Four-Eyed Girl    Rhett Miller
The First Five Times    Stars
Six Barrel Shotgun    Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Seven Nation Army    The White Stripes
Crazy Eights    Tapes N Tapes
Step On My Old Size Nines    Stereophonics
10    M.I.A.
The 11th Hour    Rancid
Twelve    Jurassic 5
Thirteen    Big Star
Fourteen    ¡Forward, Russia!
15 Steps    Radiohead
Sixteen, Maybe Less    Calexico / Iron & Wine
Seventeen Dirty Magazines    Modern Skirts
18 and Life    Skid Row
19    Paul Hardcastle
Twenty On My Way    Arthur Lee & Love

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I don’t usually post the swaps I received as much as I do the swaps I send out. Once in awhile I get motivated to post a swap received when it blows my mind but I should try to post them more often. My partner for the Harajuku Girls Group Sweets swap really spoiled me! I mean, she really went out of her way and sent me a box load of sweets. The postage alone was over $10!!

She even decorated a wooden box and put more candy in there! And she sent me Chocolate Banana pocky!! I never saw that flavor before! My dentist is going to love me. 😉

This was a leaf brooch I made for the Felt Brooch swap. My partner liked leaves and something for Autumn. I also made a G in the lower right for her since her name begins with G. I really like it!
Here is a softie I made for Sylvie’s first birthday. The pattern is from The long thread and she calls it Lucy Goosey. I used part of an old receiving blanket of Sienna’s (I have a bunch of those!)

Here is a ladybug I crocheted for a swap. It’s been so long that I forgot what the swap was for! The pattern is from Lion Brand’s website. I glued black dots on her instead of crocheting black dots and used fabric paint for the eyes. The eyes are a bit funky but oh well.

I have a few more crafts and swaps to show. I hope to post that sooner rather than later!

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It’s been awhile since we met up with friends for dim sum. We finally went on the 19th and went to our usual place, Golden Unicorn. In attendance, besides me, Yves and Sienna, were Pete, Joy, Aaron, JW and his new girl Kate. Everything was yummy and of course, there is always something that comes after we are stuffed and pay the check. This time it was peking duck! Darn it! (Side note, Aaron’s wife Drena is expecting their first baby, a boy in January! Woohoo!!) There was a newbie to dim sum, JW’s girlfriend Kate and she was willing to try everything and anything. Of course, we got chicken feet and she said she liked it (although she only ate one! LOL)
Sienna was pretty good the whole time. Yves went into work afterwards and I took the train home with Joy. We decided to drive to the Avenue U N line stop since they were doing all kinds of construction on the Q line and thought it would be easier to just avoid that whole line. After Joy got off at her stop, I was trying to concentrate on getting off the right stop since my mind can wander and I wasn’t familiar with that particular line. Well, we were at one station with the doors open when all of a sudden the conductor was sort of yelling over the loudspeaker. Something about an emergency and if there was one, please say so. I thought oh great, what is going on? It turns out that my mischievous Sienna was pushing the button that allows you to talk to the conductor in case of an emergency. Oops! That’s what I get for not paying attention! HA!

Waiting for the train

Where’s my plate?

One of Sienna’s faves, sticky rice in a bamboo leaf

Chicken feet!

who needs chopsticks?

Checking out Aaron’s G10

Kate, JW, Yves and Sienna!

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On the 12th we had another Toddler Take Over BBQ, this one to celebrate Sylvie’s 1st birthday. The weather didn’t turn out so well with overcast and some drizzling but that didn’t stop the party goers! It wasn’t pouring, at least, so we just stayed in the garage and under the umbrella when it was drizzling. The kids did not seem to mind. I did not take as many photos as I would have liked. Sometimes you just forget when you are hosting. Everyone had a great time! We had lots of food leftover (although none of the Turkish sausage Jane and Akon brought over to grill-it was DELICIOUS!), yummy cupcakes that Starr baked (vanilla cake with butterscotch glaze and frosting), my version of thin mint cookies, Turkish baklavah (which is better than the Greek version!) and pinata fun! The pinata was from Nico’s birthday party that never got used because it rained that day too!

Sylvie likes Sienna’s cup!

They are happy eating chips!

People always end up standing!

Yves and Brian manning the grill

Alesandro and Phoenix at the sandbox

Starr, Geneva and Sui

Playing with a little puddle

We sang Happy Birthday and the kids just want their cupcakes!

Sylvie did a pretty good job!

Here is a funny coincidence! I had given Starr a bunch of Sienna’s old clothes for Sylvie. Sienna wore the same dress for her 1st birthday party as Sylvie! It wasn’t planned at all. Here is a comparison photo:

There were also a couple of kids that I did not get good photos of so just to document their presence, there was also 3 year old Gaby (Alesandro’s sister) and 3 year old Izgi ( daughter to Jane and Akon, who brought that delicious sausage). And Kerri came later with Rory and new baby Tyge. I don’t have any photos from the pinata. All the kids got a chance to hit at it (unsuccesfully) and even some adults. We ended up basically ripping it open.

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Yesterday was Yves’ birthday. Poor guy is busy at work and Sienna was being so naughty yesterday! She opened all the drawers to our dresser in the bedroom and thus it fell over. What a mess! And the little glass that was in my jewelry box got all broken. At least take out Japanese was good (we tried a new place). It’s a good thing we celebrated his birthday on Sunday. After grilling some lunch outside, we had cake inside. My parents always buy the birthday cake and Yves wanted carrot cake again! They tried a different bakery than last time, Leskes. The cake was moist but the addition of pineapples in it did not appeal to Yves (I didn’t mind that much.) We are now going to make it a mission to find some good carrot cake! (We know of a great carrot cupcake! Robicelli’s!)

Sienna sings Happy Birthday!

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I had lunch with Pete last week and we went to our semi-regular favorite place, Shopsin‘s. I’m really disappointed that I forgot my camera as we had some yummy stuff! I’m still writing about it tho so I won’t forget! My quest to try something different each time is still in effect.

This time, I got Luke’s lunch I. That’s bbq pork, chili cheese fries on ciabatta and I got mild so Pete could try some. It was DELICIOUS! Of course I absolutely love bbq pork and they didn’t put a lot of chili cheese fries on top so it wasn’t overwhelming. Pete got a big bird sandwich, which I can’t find on the menu but it is basically a fried chicken sandwich. And I took the liberty to order us dessert, ebelskivers with banana. I only first heard about it from a new Food Network show “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” (a very dangerous show to watch!) as one of the chef’s named this as his favorite fried food at Shopsin’s. So of course, I had to get it! Do I have to tell you? Ok, it was YUMMY!!

And of course, we rounded out our visit at Economy Candy! 😉

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We have reached thin crust pizza success! Last week’s pizza was perfectly thin and crunchy and didn’t fluff up in the middle. Yves decided to use a little less dough and it worked out perfectly. We still had problems transferring the pizza so on Wednesday me and Sienna went to get a pizza peel at BB&B. That night’s pizza was equally delicious and the pizza peel did make it easier to transfer the pizza (no pics from last night’s dinner). Last week Sienna made a pizza in her little pan. We couldn’t find it last night so I just shared mine with her.

Why does Sienna have a goofy smile?

Because her mommy had a goofy smile!

Sienna next to her pizza (we actually put the toppings on for her!)

Yves next to his pizza

My pizza

Cooked!

Thinness galore!

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Hurricane Bill thwarted our beach plans (they closed the beaches due to rough riptides) but we had a nice weekend regardless! Friday afternoon the skies opened up and it rained pretty heavily. It didn’t last too long. Saturday there was a threat of rain and it did rain for a little bit but it wasn’t too bad. Yves took Sienna to play in the back while I baked banana cupcakes with a whipped peanut butter frosting. Then I ran over to the market so Yves can grill up some burgers. I laughed out loud when I came back to discover Sienna was totally carefree (see photo for specifics)! The pool and sprinkler was out and they were wet and running around and having a great time. Yves finally turned out a batch of burgers he was very happy with.

The frosting tasted a lot better later on in the day and the next day.

Sunday I made bacon chocolate chip pancakes (thanks for the mix Brenda!) and Sienna even helped. At first Yves wasn’t interested in trying it but then he did and we all liked them. Sienna even asked for more (although I made hers without the bacon chocolate). Then we went down to Park Slope so I could take my film into get developed at Accurate Photo. Yves and Sienna went to the playground by the Stone House while I waited by the photo store to be opened. I waited. And waited. And waited. Then gave up. Turns out they were closed when we drove by at 1pm! I usually go on Saturdays but thought they were open on Sundays as well. So disappointed! Anyway, we had lunch at Perch cafe. The food is good but service is slow as molasses! It also totally annoys me when a table that orders after us gets their food before us! Clearly the waitress does not have kids  and doesn’t understand the urgency of keeping the visit as short as possible.
Sienna got mac and cheese

My turkey bacon club

Tired of playing tea party, Yves talked her into playing blocks instead!

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Here are some recent things I made in the kitchen. I just want to say, I LOVE MY STAND MIXER!! Making bread type items is so much easier with it! We’ve been having homemade pizza every week now and invested in a pizza stone. We’re still trying to perfect the thin crust. It’s fun trying every week.

Yves is a better roller than me, I’m like a rolling retard.

Yves and his creation. He cut off the extra bits to make it round. Looks great! I did not buy a pizza peel so we thought we’d be able to slide the pizza off of this baking sheet. Didn’t work out quite as planned but we did it!

Out of the oven! There’s leftover meatloaf, red onion and goat cheese

A slice. The pizza stone really makes a difference! The crust was very crisp. The middle puffed up more than it has in the past. Yves thinks he needs to roll it out even thinner or use less dough.

My square pizza with some veggies. The recipe makes a lot of dough so we always make 2 pizzas and have leftovers for lunch!

Yesterday I made monkey bread. I never even heard of this until I saw the recipe. It’s sort of like cinnamon rolls but not as sweet. The tasting committee loved them! It was half gone by the evening.

Here’s a blurry photo of it. I just get so excited when it comes out of the oven. (Hmm, a light bulb just went off! I should use Yves’ gorillapod! DOH!) I got the recipe from the King Arthur flour website. That website is dangerous!

Some other goodies of the past few weeks:

Homemade chocolate pudding!! So EASY! You just need whole milk, cornstarch and hot cocoa powder and an hour in the fridge! I actually used soy milk since I didn’t have enough whole milk and I betcha it would be even more creamier with whole milk. I used Trader Joe’s mint cocoa powder so all 4 bowls were for ME since Yves doesn’t like mint!

Baked Egg Rolls from a recipe on Joyful Abode! I added meat to mine and used fresh mushrooms instead of canned in her recipe. YUM! I should see if there is a homemade duck sauce recipe! (ooh! Found one on Meg’s Vegan Recipes! Duck sauce: 1/2 cup of water, 1/3 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of apricot preserves, 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch, 1 TBS white vinegar, 1 tsp salt. Stir over medium heat.)

And baked corn dogs. These didn’t go over so well with Sienna. I used Trader Joe’s chicken sausage but they didn’t have the flavor she likes (oddly enough, she likes the savory ones and not the sweet apple, which is the one I used). I enjoyed them and Yves thought it was a bit too much. There was cheese in the coating too. I guess this is more of a lunch item and just one each too. Or perhaps with a salad?

I know the last two items are usually fried but I have to try to cut calories somewhere! With all the baking I’m likely to be doing, a girl’s gotta watch it! 😉

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